18 October 2013

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was Tuesday made
patron-in-chief of the country's cricket board, while an ad-hoc committee took
charge of the game's administration in an effort to end months of turmoil.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) ran into trouble in May this year when a court terminated chairman Zaka Ashraf after complaints about the procedure for his election.

Interim Chairman Najam Sethi

Veteran journalist Najam Sethi took over as interim chairman but he too fell foul of the courts, with an other judgement severely reducing his powers.

The PCB is appealing against the second court ruling but in the meantime has set up a five-man committee to run the Board pending another hearing.

"An Interim Management Committee (IMC) has been constituted in order to ensure that PCB remains enabled to continue to run smoothly day-to-day domestic and international functions for the promotion of the game," said a PCB statement.

The PCB has typically been run by ad-hoc committees since its inception in 1948, but a proper board structure was set up in 2007.

Pakistan's president has traditionally been the board patron and has had responsibility for appointing the PCB chairman.

The procedure has been controversial and just recently the board was pressured to introduce a whole new constitution after the International Cricket Council (ICC) ordered an end to political interference.